Club History

INTRODUCTION "I feel so very honoured to be Chairman of EG at the start of its Centenary year in 1985. The Club is famous throughout the country and abroad and has had many successes. Its members have won many sporting honours, and over the years the games players of Gloucestershire have gathered there. We are so very fortunate to have such wonderful facilities and those who are willing to look after them. We also owe an enormous debt to all those faithful members who "put EG first" over the last 100 years. There has never been a shortage of players willing to carry out the jobs necessary to maintain a flourishing members' club. Whether modern sophisticated facilities make for greater enjoyment than the wooden pavilion with one bath I do not know. I have enjoyed both and feel very privileged to have been a member of EG for nearly half its lifetime." Mary Eyre Chairman 1984/5 The East Gloucestershire Club has now been an important arena of sport in Cheltenham for more than a century. In that time it has been the scene of numerous sporting spectacles of national note and produced its own stars in tennis, hockey and squash. But more than this, it has been a centre where players of all standards have been able to take part in the sport of their choice and afterwards enjoy a friendly social atmosphere. EG started out purely as a Cricket Club in around 1883, although the exact date of its inauguration has not been recorded. In the decades that followed croquet, lacrosse, archery, men's as well as women's hockey and even baseball has been played on its hallowed turf. It was not until 1885 that tennis, the game with which the Club is now synonymous, was played there and for many decades it took a back seat to cricket and hockey. Records show that men's and women's hockey was first played in 1898. Whilst this was a perfectly acceptable game for the men, it was not regarded as such for Victorian ladies and thus EG players must be regarded as pioneers. Public opinion then did not look kindly on ladies throwing propriety to the wind and rushing about in unseemly haste, albeit clad in ankle length skirts. Those early games attracted wide press coverage and large crowds, a proportion of which were so incensed with what they saw that they were hostile and antagonistic. THE PIONEERS The players, who were without exception from the upper and middle classes, were put under tremendous pressures to give up the game. So it should be a matter of some pride that a Club member, Mrs Barbara Kelly, was selected to play for one of the earliest England teams in 1904. She was the first of 19 hockey internationals produced by EG in the ensuing years. Croquet was introduced into the sporting line-up in 1899 but was destined to split from its parent Club a few years later. Since then the two Clubs have existed peacefully side by side. The tea pavilion, which still stands near the hard courts and serves a useful purpose as the groundsman's store was built in 1909. By this time the Club boasted a cricket pitch, six tennis courts and two hockey pitches. It had obviously established itself as a Club of stature, for that year it was chosen as a venue, for a County cricket match and that winter a ladies county hockey match was played there. CROSS ROADS The year 1920 was destined to be a crucial one for the Club. Up till then the grounds had been leased from the Charlton Park estate which was then up for sale. Faced with the option to continue to lease or to buy, a far seeing Committee decided to purchase even though the price tag was a daunting £18,000. The East Gloucestershire Club Company was formed and members were asked to loan money to facilitate the acquisition. They obviously generously met the appeal for the sale went through. The Committee must be congratulated for having the courage to make a decision which meant the Club could survive. If they had taken the easy option and continued it is unlikely that EG with its 10 lovely acres in the middle of a prime housing area would exist today. The records in fact show that the various Committees throughout the years have invariably made decisions which have ensured the steady growth of the Club. Slowly, but surely, it has developed into one of the biggest in the West Country. The right path has never been found easily though, for from the very beginning fierce rows in Committee Meetings are recorded in the Minute Books. Our researcher Bridget West reports that on numerous occasions discussions became "very nasty" By 1924 the men's hockey fever was over and with only six members the team disbanded. The cricket section was struggling too. CRICKET CRISIS For the cricketers the writing was clearly on the wall for they were already having to rely on outsiders to make up the team. The growing tennis section was flexing its muscle and casting avaricious eyes on the cricket pitch as a site for more courts. Two years previously, in 1922, the first tennis Committee had been formed and the effect was almost immediate. Two hard courts costing £110 each were laid in 1924. Members were obviously keen for winter tennis was being played at the Club fox the first time. The following season a resolution was passed that some of the cricket pitch was to be taken over to provide more courts. It does not seem such a controversial decision when it is realised that by then there were only 15 cricket players but 234 tennis members. Not surprisingly 12 months later the cricketers gave up and disbanded the team and some of the pitch was converted into courts. The continuing demand by the tennis players for still more courts cost the Club one of its hockey pitches in 1929. The layout of the Club was rearranged and the hockey members kept happy with improvements to the remaining pitch. CHANGING ATTITUDES Throughout, the records reflect the changing attitudes and political and social upheavals outside the cloistered life of the Club. Women, for example, in the early days definitely had their place as highlighted in an entry in the minutes of 1906. The men complained that the woman were not keeping to their designated part of the pavilion and, in the same breath, decreed dogs should be kept out. In 1914 a policy decision was made to allow more ladies to Join the Club and by the end of the First War there were actually three serving on the Committee. In 1926 the Committee decided, after a long discussion, that Club matches should continue to be played despite the General Strike. The wind of change blew strong in 1931 when for the first time play was permitted on Sundays, but in the afternoons only. The mid thirties saw a shuffle towards democracy at the Club, when in 1935 a "suggestion book" was introduced. It was that year too that members first talked of building covered tennis and squash courts. It was to be discussed 10 years later too but members of the day felt them to be a distant goal. They were unfortunately proved to be all too right, for it was to be another 20 years before squash courts were finally built and indoor tennis facilities are still a dream. EG spluttered into the mechanical age more or less by accident in 1938. Up till then the groundsman's horsepower had been a pony purchased five years previously for £30. It was injured and rather than replacing it with another a motor roller was bought. LONG SHOT The thirties saw the birth of two new sections at the Club. EG's long association with archery began in 1933 and three years later a Strong table tennis section was formed. Archers shot happily on the ground for 49 years. Then one day in 1982 a novice shot a wild arrow which went through the trees and fell onto a tennis Court narrowly missing a player. It was regretfully decided that the Club was no longer big enough for the sport, and in view of the obvious danger it was immediately stopped and a years rent returned. During the Second World War American soldiers were permitted to join EG. Somewhat inevitably, during this period base ball was played but it was not allowed to become a habit. Ideas for regular matches were stumped when ground fees asked for were thought to be prohibitively high. WIMBLEDON WARM-UP In the early fifties, the Club's Open Tournament grew in popularity with top International players viewing the event as ideal for pre-Wimbledon practise on grass. Big name players from all over the world then played at EG, but alas, those glorious summer days were not to last. In 1957 Club finances were in bad shape so it was decided that it was no longer possible to pay for the player's expenses or cover hotel bills as in previous years. It was the beginning of the end, for players became increasingly reluctant to accept home hospitality, and in the ensuing years the Club found it difficult to attract financial backing for the Tournaments. In 1961 the Club, uneasy about losing the prestige given to the event by the circuit players, revised the earlier decision. Stars were invited to the Tournament and the Club carried the losses but it was a situation that could not go on for ever, EG was economically out of its class when players turned professional in 1967 and not only expected expenses as a right but high prize money too, It was in the fifties too that the Club bestowed an honour on one of its exceptional members Mrs Margaret Eyre was made an honorary full playing life member as a tribute for services to EG. As Margaret Lidderdale she was, in 1913, selected to play for England at hockey and in 1938 became the first woman professional tennis coach in this country. She was EG's official coach from before the war until she handed over to the late Mrs Pam Bocquet in more recent years. In 1977 Mrs Eyre won National recognition for her voluntary work in sport when she was awarded the Torch Trophy by the National Playing Fields Association. Her sister, Kate, also an EG member, was an English hockey International at 16. She also played Wightman cup tennis and in 1924 was a finalist in the Wimbledon Ladies Doubles with fellow Club player Mary McIquham. Together with the Club's present Chairman Miss Mary Eyre, who followed in her mother's footsteps to play for England, the family has brought great prestige to EG throughout its history. Periodically during its life-time the Club has hit low spots when money was short and though it may seem unlikely today, tennis members too few. Such was a time in the mid-fifties when the Committee were already dealing with the crisis over the future of the Open Tournament. The Club was forced to advertise for members in 1957 and again in 1964 yet by 1970 tennis had regained its popularity and membership had to be limited to 350 and there was a waiting list. NEW PAVILION The dawn of the sixties saw a determined move to replace the old wooden pavilion and verandah with a new Club house. Plans went ahead and by 1967 the new building stood in the ashes of the old. It had cost £11,000 and had been paid for with the aid of a 90 per cent loan from the South West Sports Council and a £3,500 Government grant. Members, like their counterparts nearly half a century before, willingly entered into a debenture scheme to meet the remainder of the costs. Those who are old enough, remember the wooden pavilion with affection. Though in later years it was little more than a shack, it seemed one of the last bastions of old style England. It certainly had a unique atmosphere that the new sophisticated building has yet to match. It was in 1966 that the late Mrs Pam Bocquet, a former tennis International, became the official Club Coach. She was asked to take on the job as Secretary as well. The Seventies was an era of fast growth and progress for EG. Squash was the sport of the age and the go-ahead Committee immediately started pushing for courts to add to the already impressive array of facilities. SQUASH REVOLUTION It was not until January 1972 that the first two squash courts were opened, followed by two more in 1980. Major Ted Millman, one of the Club's few Life Members, was appointed the Official Coach. It was not long before both the men's and women's teams had made their mark and were among the top in the country. Tennis facilities were being up-dated too in the seventies. This became more imperative when in 1976, by quirk of history, EG became the unofficial headquarters of county tennis. Up till then Bristol had been the traditional centre, but the local Government reorganisation of 1974 put the city in the new County of Avon. In 1971 the first two "Quick" courts were built. A year later floodlights were installed giving members extended playing hours, The growth continued during the next two decades until now there are seven all-weather courts, four of which have floodlights, 15 grass and four shale courts. Several practise courts are also set up on the hockey pitch in the Summer. And in the Clubs Centenary Year, the four shale courts which have existed for 60 years are being up-graded. They are being resurfaced and a "Pop-up, watering system installed, hopefully putting an end to dusty games. SOCIAL TENNIS For many Years the more social tennis members felt they were not getting a fair deal and having to take second place to team Players when it came to courts. In 1970 the tail turned and "equal rights" for social tennis was demanded and is now an established and treasured part of Club life. A direct result of this revolt has been the open Round Robin Tournaments held about three times a year, which now so popular that Players come from all over the country to play in them. The Junior Tournament too attracts entries from far and wide. It was first held in 1930 and in 55 Years has developed into one of the best known events in the country. Many of the young stars use it as a warm up for the National Junior Championships held soon afterwards. The resources and effort poured into EG throughout its 100 year history have paid off for it has always encouraged excellence. The Club has been around the top of the table in tennis, squash and hockey and can be proud that its Players have represented the county and their country in all three sports. DEVELOPMENT AT EAST GLOUCESTERSHIRE CLUB SINCE CENTENARY 1985 1992 - Fires - Clubhouse partly rebuilt 1993 - 4 Grass Courts converted to Astroturf with grant from Foundation of Sports and Arts, gift from members and loans from members. These floodlit from the edges which allowed hockey to be practiced from them. Hockey competitions now had to be played on Astroturf so the grass pitch was seldom used. 1995 - The Astroturf proved so popular that the 4 Tennis quick courts were converted. 1996 - The hard courts were re-laid. 1998, 1999 - 2 Grass Courts re-laid and all grass had watering system installed. After the Centenary an office staff was employed and reception open at most times. Paid staff also coped with the Bar and Catering. 2002 - after seven years of debate and planning funding was finally secured for EG's most ambitious project to date. The extending and total refurbishment of the clubhouse, the construction of two new astroturf courts, conversion of the four shale courts to clay and the opening ok a dedicated Kids Zone area. The project finally came to fruition in June 2003 and culminated in a grand reopening weekend.